Babe Cranfield

Wedge

Wedge

WO Wedge Lock
Silver Member
Just heard from my friend Larry Moy (co-author of the Straight Pool Bible with Babe). He said he is still in touch with Babe's wife (Ruth) and she celebrated her 96th Birthday in November.

Babe was one of the great 14.1 players. Good to hear that his wife is still with us!

Wedge
 
Seems to me that Ruth is going to get the last 100 in that family.
:bow-down:

Dick Capotto introduced me to the Babe years ago....
...it was so impressive to talk to a master
 
Wedge,

Remember back in the old days, my late friend Erwin Pat Howey was one of the very few players Babe would actually play with. Used to drive to Syracuse and watch Pat and Babe play at Holiday Bowl on East Erie Blvd. Not sure if Cardigan Kid was around at that time. It sure was a show! Pat might never have played at Babe's speed but he did run over three hundred balls. That with a full time job and a family. Great memories! Thanks. Good health to Ruth on another Cranfield run to a hundred.

Lyn
 
cardiac kid said:
Wedge,

Remember back in the old days, my late friend Erwin Pat Howey was one of the very few players Babe would actually play with. Used to drive to Syracuse and watch Pat and Babe play at Holiday Bowl on East Erie Blvd. Not sure if Cardigan Kid was around at that time. It sure was a show! Pat might never have played at Babe's speed but he did run over three hundred balls. That with a full time job and a family. Great memories! Thanks. Good health to Ruth on another Cranfield run to a hundred.

Lyn
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I'm jealous, Lyn. I was in grade school at the time. I only heard stories about how cool Holiday bowl was on Erie Blvd. And to have been able to watch those guys duke it out would've been a real treat.

Like your friend Pat, I also heard Mr. Cranfield held a full time job his entire career, eventually retiring from the Muzak corporation. Maybe that's what they had in common and why Babe would play him regularly-family and career.

I dig your upstate pool historical knowledge, Lyn-any more Babe stories or amazing shots/high runs by him you witnessed?
 
Babe Cranfield's wife, Ruth

Glad to hear Ruth is still alive and well. She told me when Babe was playing in a World's Championship, she reversed the wedding ring on her finger because she was afraid the diamonds' sparkle might distract him. Babe was a good friend, and he was the first person who told me about Ralph Greenleaf. Without Babe, I wouldn't have embarked on the novel I hope to be finished with before too long.
 
I saw "Babe" Cranfield play at the Commodore Hotel back in 1966 or 1967, in a straight pool championship. I was a rookie spectator and had no idea who this balding man was. What I do remember was that he got an opening and came to the table and shot a ball in. He shook his head in a disapproving sort of way and looked at the referee, who was Cue Ball Kelley, and frowned. So then he got down and shot the next ball and the cue ball rolled a bit, and once again there was an expression of dissatisfaction. This went on for several racks. Finally "Babe" had about eighty-five balls in his run and was showing no signs of stopping and I tumbled to the joke. Inside I said to myself, "Oh, I get it! This guy is never going to be in position--to hear him tell it--no matter how many balls he runs!''

I never met Babe Cranfield, but I gather from everything that I have read that he was a pleasant man who exhibited none of this querulousness when he was not trying to get pinpoint position in a championship.

A few years ago, in a poolroom in Canandaigua, NY, I found a list of rules for a straight pool league which, I believe, had been drawn up by Arthur Cranfield. I believe that one of them was that you had only twenty-five seconds or so to shoot your next shot--if I remember correctly.

PS: Shouldn't somebody do a biography of or a film about Ralph Greenleaf?
 
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Tobermory said:
....A few years ago, in a poolroom in Canandaigua, NY, I found a list of rules for a straight pool league which, I believe, had been drawn up by Arthur Cranfield. I believe that one of them was that you had only twenty-five seconds or so to shoot your next shot--if I remember correctly...
Click to expand...

Canandaigua Family Billiards when it was at Route 96 and Route 332? Off 332 right in Canandaigua? On Route 5 & 20 just East of Canandaigua? Were you a regular or a visitor? Did you know Harold Stackhouse? Nice to know someone remembers that place. Played in a 9 ball event there where he used the rule once the cue ball touched the cloth, you had to play the shot from there. If you picked the cue ball up to re-place it, it was a foul.

Lyn
 
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